ET’s CSR committee challenged the company to go the extra mile by producing eco bricks as a way of preventing single-use plastics.
Enviro Technology Services Ltd (ET), which supplies anything from single gas analysers through to large, sophisticated air quality monitoring stations for a global market, has a strong ethical belief in protecting the environment and recognises that sometimes unconventional ideas can achieve great results.
Located in Stroud, Gloucestershire (a town widely acknowledged as being one of the greenest in the country), ET’s CSR committee decided to challenge the company to go the extra mile when it came to recycling and reusing by producing eco bricks as a way of preventing single-use plastics, originating from their head office, from going into landfill.
Up and down the UK, there are local ecobrick community groups all collecting the densely packed plastic bottles for use in community projects, and perhaps not surprisingly, Stroud has a particularly large, active, and passionate ecobrick group.
Running to work one morning earlier this year, ET’s MD, Duncan Mounsor, had a bright idea. His idea was to build an air quality monitoring station, nothing new to ET, but making it using plastic waste from the local community in the form of eco bricks.
After making contact with the Stroud Ecobrick Group, who were delighted with the idea, plans were set in motion and 400 eco bricks that had been filled by the local community were delivered to ET.
The AQ station framework itself was built using Skokbord, a material made from 100% recycled plastic and wood from the Bristol Wood Recycling Project.
At ET, we recognise our corporate and social responsibilities not only to our customers, suppliers, and employees but also the impacts that we make on society, the economy, and the planet. We try to make a positive difference, not only in our local community but in other locations in which we operate. The idea behind building an air quality monitoring station utilising eco bricks seemed like a great solution to demonstrate how we can all think outside of the box in terms of how to do things differently to benefit the environment whilst simultaneously achieving a great result in terms of product design. It was important to us to make sure the majority of the materials used were recycled and not just the eco bricks themselves. Our project team did a fantastic job turning my crazy idea into reality, and we are all very proud of our accomplishments. I tend to think of it more as a piece of urban modern art than a roadside air quality monitoring enclosure, and I don’t think it would look at all out of place in the Tate Modern!
Duncan Mounsor Managing Director
